FBI denies banning 7/7 bomber from flying to US

The FBI tonight denied it had banned the leader of the July 7 bombings from flying to the US two years before the London blasts.

The US author Ron Suskind claimed the action had been taken after the CIA identified Mohammad Sidique Khan as a terrorist threat in 2003 and warned British intelligence about him.

However, the FBI has now backed up suggestions that Mr Suskind's book, the One Percent Doctrine, had confused Sidique Khan with Mohammed Ajmal Khan, who is serving a nine-year jail sentence in Britain for directing terrorism.

"The book asserts that Mohammad Sidique Khan, a suspect in the London subway bombings of July 7, 2005, was on the US no fly list and attempted to enter the United States three times," an FBI statement said.

"That reporting is inaccurate. There is an individual named Mohammed Ajmal Khan, who is currently incarcerated in the United Kingdom for providing material support to terrorism.

"Many of the facts the book inaccurately associates with Mohammed Sidique Khan do apply to Mohammed Ajmal Khan. It appears that the author has intertwined facts relating to both men, causing some confusion."

An FBI spokesman said he could not say whether all Mr Suskind's assertions about Sidique Khan were incorrect.

His claims received widespread publicity earlier this week, sparking renewed calls for a public inquiry into the bombings of three tube trains and a bus.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said that, if true, they showed the case for a public inquiry was "unarguable".

They also contradicted evidence from Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director of MI5, who told the parliamentary intelligence and security committee that Sidique Khan was not regarded as a serious threat before the London bombings.

On Tuesday, the Guardian reported that Dan Coleman, Mr Suskind's source and the man who led the FBI's investigation into al-Qaida, appeared to have confused Sidique Khan with Ajmal Khan.

Ajmal Khan, from Coventry, was jailed for nine years after admitting directing a terrorist organisation, including providing weapons and funds to Lashkar-i-Toiba, a group fighting against India in Kashmir.

British counter-intelligence officials told the Guardian that Mr Suskind was misled and said it was a case of mistaken identity. They indicated that Ajmal Khan fitted the profile of the man identified in the book as Sidique Khan.

Earlier this week, Mr Suskind denied there had been a mix-up, saying: "There is no doubt, from the many sources that I interviewed in the US for my book ... this incident involved Mohammad Sidique Khan."